{Celebrating 4 Years}

 

Happy Anniversary, Jess & Luke!



 

Remember that a special day...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

traditions continue...

You remember that last year we had another wedding in the family. I posted pics and tales here and here. This year to carry on the wedding week traditions we got pedicures and attended a Twins game!

Twins Game

Twins Game

Pedicures

Pedicures

wedding pics - jess & luke

SET UP

Anna & I got there a little late for the actual set up, but we did get there in time to hang out with those just arriving in town for the big weekend. We did bring coffee & donuts though...

Set up

BACHLORETTE PARTY

We had Jess's bachlorette party @ the Condo after the rehearsal dinner. Anna did most of the prep...

Bachlorette Party

THE WEDDING

These are pics from Anna:

Jess's Wedding by aGf

I just took a few pics:

Wedding Day

list maker's success story

I got to cross off two major things from my TO DO list, all in one weekend!

My weekend started out by leaving work on Friday and meeting my new landlord to sign the lease. Yep, you heard me: I signed a lease for my new apartment! This is exciting news considering it was about 10 days ago that I made the call to see about availability and probably two weeks ago that I started digging around the internet for leads on a new place. In case you forgot, or don't know, I have to move b/c my sister's getting married!

I didn't end up needing the internet's assistance b/c I got a sweet deal of a place with Christian landlords and neighbors to boot! In fact, it's b/c of my SIL's sister Lindsay! that I found my new place. Lindsay! shares one of the upstairs apartments with another friend from church (Elizabeth) and my hairdresser (Megan) and another church friend (Sarah) share the other upstairs apartment. Now we just need someone we know to move across the hall from me! So do we have any takers out there?! Yes? Maybe? OK, at least think about it, will ya?!

The apartment is in the same area that I currently live, so that is reassuring to me. The one-bedroom apartment is just my size. The nice living space with an open kitchen/living room area has lovely hardwood (or hardwood-like) and tiled floors. The kitchen will have a new counter top by the time I move in and there's a small bathroom and plenty of closet space (I hope). I can't wait to decorate! Oh, and there's a laundry area just next door to my apartment. I'm used to having the washer/dryer just outside my room so I'm not really giving up anything here!

So my weekend continued with an evening of celebrating by myself. Jess was coaching at a basketball tournament so she was a little preoccupied. Then on Saturday I enjoyed sleeping in until I had to go sing for four hours. Yes, 4 hours! My Deo Cantamus group has a concert the end of March so we have lots to work on (German, Latin, etc.). We did break for lunch and I joined a new(er) friend, Char, for lunch at D'amicos & Sons. D'amico's is a place I had never been. We each had the salad sampler and of course it was delicious. We didn't have time to enjoy all of it b/c we had to hurry back to our practice. A fellow singer had already given us a hard time about probably being late so we felt a little guilty, but not much!

Later this afternoon I headed to the mall to do a little bridesmaid* dress shopping. I wanted to get one attempt under my belt since this is not something I looked forward to and thought the final purchase would take several different excursions. Well, little did I know that I would find two options after trying only only four dresses! As they say in my country, "Sometimes JCP come through for you!"--right, Jess?! ;) I haven't tried on the dresses for anyone else, so I may need a couple of sister-opinions to seal the deal, but I'm just excited that I have options! :)

Tomorrow is going to be a full day as well. After church Lindsay! and I are heading to a farewell performance of Topel. Who's Topel, you say? Well, you didn't say if you are a Fiddler on the Roof fan**. As a young girl I watched Fiddler on the Roof many, many times. I don't think I could sit through the movie again (in one sitting), but I'm excited to see it live and in person! After an afternoon of singing***, guess what I'll do before our evening service? Yep, I'll be at choir practice! :)

All in all, a very successful weekend for one list maker who, this time, didn't even have to add things to her list in order to cross them off!

Edit Sunday, March 1: Lindsay! and I didn't get to attend Fiddler's as planned. When we got there the tickets were all sold out! We discussed how maybe if we had left right after church to go we would have made it in time, but then consoled ourselves with the fact that even if we had waited in line they still might have been sold out by the time we got to the front...

*Jess has given us 7 bridesmaids pretty much just one stipulation for our dresses: black.

**I'm not really a fan per se b/c I didn't know about it being Topel's farewell tour until after we made the decision to go see the performance...

***Did you know I liked singing so much?!

bright bling!

Just in case you missed the news flash/bright light coming from the Minnesota sky...my sister, Jess, she got engaged this past weekend!

This happened Friday night when Luke flew in from Pennsylvania to surprise Jess. Thankfully he gave me a heads-up on Wednesday so I could secret-clean the house. (Didn't really have to do it secretly, Jess wasn't home much to notice b/c of two basketball games and practices.)

So how did Luke propose, you ask? He was waiting at our condo for her to come home after she coached a high school girls basketball game. Jess's friend Liz had picked Luke up at the airport and helped him run a few errands. Then I got the text message that he had arrived safe and sound. "The Eagle has landed" would have been appropriate, but since Jess was busy with her basketball game we didn't need much code-talk. (Well, except when the sisterhood was trying to discuss over the head of one 4-year-old niece..."Who's leaving the airport, Bekah?")

Thankfully her team won :) and she only stayed through ½ time of the boys’ game. We (those of us "in" on the plan) were getting nervous that she wasn’t going to go home! It all worked out, and we didn't even have to come up with too many scenario variations to get her back to the condo. She said, "Yes!" he tells us. You can see the ring really is lovely!

Now we’ve already had a party to celebrate their engagement and the date has been set for May 30, 2009. Yep, this May! The sisterhood of Mpls has already purchased her a wedding planner and have plotted for the first dress-shopping excursion. Also, the NC-sisterhood has claimed a win: read more here. The youngest of the sisterhood is being tapped for her photography skills...

So this little event of last weekend actually changes two significant things in my life:

1. I will be moving, really soon! Jess owns the condo in which we both live and
   they've (almost for sure) decided they'll (probably) be living here... So
   apartment hunting has begun!
2. I’m going to postpone my trip to Romania scheduled for earlier in May. Tickets had not yet been purchase, but my passport was recently updated. A dear college friend, Kim, is getting married to a Romanian fellow on May 17th, but with these two weddings happening so close together and with a move on my horizon, I’m needing to plan the trip at another time. My friend is still going to live in Romania after they get married and they are planning on a state-side celebration in June. Fortunately my travel companion (another college friend of mine), Tricia, will not have to travel alone. Her sister is still planning to make the trip with her. I do plan to get to Europe sometime in my lifetime though! Maybe next year!

Congrats, Jess & Luke!